Tauheen-e-Sunnat

If there's tauheen-e-sunnat going on, it's only because you yourself did tauheen-e-sunnat. Every single Muslim is a cartoon of the Sunnah. Every single Muslim male is a pictorial cartoon of the sunnah of the prophet sallallahwasallam.

— Shaykh Kamaluddin, On Blasphemy.

Stealing Slippers from Masajid

So while coming back from work a friend (Farrukh) started talking about another colleague, who had his 5000 bucks slippers stolen from masjid, the second time. And when he complained to the Imam sahab, the cleric simply gave him a pair of slippers from the spare ones which are there to be worn to the washroom.

So hearing this, Arshan told of a story of a guy who had come to a buzurg (a wise, pious man), and told him that he was afraid his slippers would get stolen from masjid. The buzurg told him one thing. He said that whenever you're entering the masjid and leaving your footwear outside, always make a prayer to Allah that whoever steals your stuff, doesn't earn gunah ('Jo bhi mera maal churaye ga, woh us per halal hoga, haram nahin hoga.'). When I heard this, I said yeah cool, but this seems like a very difficult thing to do. Because you can't even get the sucker in next life then! But then, Arshan explained what the priest meant...

The idea was, when people steal, the theft is always initiated by Shaytan's suggestions. And Shaytan always suggests things to a person which are most harmful, least beneficial. So for example, a student worrying whether he should study or watch a movie, will always be suggested by Shaytan to watch a movie; but a Student worrying whether to offer salat-e-tahajjud or study, will always be suggested to study. Anyway, when the next time a person who's need of money or slippers (or just wants to steal a pair of slippers) will come by,  Shaytan will try his best that he doesn't steal Your footwear, because then, he won't commit a sin! And so, Shaytan will lead him away to other slippers... This way your slippers are protected.

I think the same idea can be applied to other times as well. Just before bargaining, just say a little prayer to Allah, that if he charges me more than he should, I want that extra money to become charity from my side, not something that will come as wrong doing to him, I want that money to become halal (lawful) to him. If he does end up charging you extra (because you're gullible or inexperienced or something) then you are not robbed, instead, you've donated and earned so much more!

Simplicity

This is just plain simplicity. But people's biases and familiarity and training with complex and complicated thoughts, behaviors, actions has made it so abstruse for them.

It's not complicated, it's simple. To get it, think less. Think clear. Think.

A walk in a partk

So once I was telling Wahaj on chat once about my morning walking/jogging I had started (and stopped) doing with Sharjeel; here's a small excerpt from the chat:

me: there is this mark
next to the munawwara part
first day we went to munawwara partk
but the next day the weather was to good to goto that part
so we went to this one
which we've been going to since then
Wahaj: in total you have tried to write park 4 times, but have failed to spell it correctly even once.

Kinds of people I hate

Asghar tells me that I've always said that there are four kinds of people that I don't like. Like   they really really tick me off when they're in my company, or more importantly, they're the people I have to deal with on regular basis. And, right now, I don't remember what those four people are. Actually, that's not what Asghar tells me, what he tells me is that I always forget the fourth one while enumerating the four types.

Well, let me try now, let's see if I remember any.

1) Arrogant people. 

This has got to be on the top. I will add the explanation later.

2) Fake people. 

Okay, so basically, everyone's fake. We all hide ourselves, which makes this this world a live-in-able place. So what we call fake are just the people who're faker than us. That's the case usually. But there are some people wayy off the median. The kind that will pretend to be sophisticated, educated, rich when they're talking to people of lower-class than themselves, etc etc. Their confidence rests on their gadgets, their hair color, their new slick first-copy of Gucci eye-wear, or their ability to cuss.

3) Dumb people. 

I always put them at number three, because I thought they deserved to be hated less than the other two... but do they? I mean, they are what you come across the most. A person who's arrogant, sure, but you don't find too many of them that are unbearable. A person who's fake, well, there are so many, that you get used to them, and after a while it's a nuisance. But dumb people? Oh... they surprise you Every Single Time. And they are a lot!

This hasn't got anything to do with IQ. This is sheer, absolute lack of desire to think! This hasn't got anything with the ability or inability to think. It's just that these people don't see things, don't get jokes, don't think before they make a joke, or say something blunt, or see the point unless it's presented to them on a platter, or keep arguing after they've been proven logically incorrect. They just start blabbering on about something else. God! These people have made me such a quieter person! This phenomena is also seen in the number one category, of arguing when the argument is really completed, but arrogants are the worst, because they keep arguing Even When They Know They Are Wrong! Sometimes, what they're arguing against is something they themselves agreed to, like two days ago, but now, since it's brought up in relation to their something they do or have done or have said, their arrogance binds them to disagree.

4) Stealthy people

Hey Asghar, guess what? I can finally articulately define the fourth kind here. These people, they don't give you clear answers. They don't say no. You can see through them! They would use lies, non-lies, tricks, jokes, all sorts of cunning to just avoid a clear cut talk. To not say what is the Truth. To not tell you they will break the promise they made. To try to appear nicer than they are choosing to be. If you're playing like a bitch, own up to it, bitch!

Saad, are you a gamer?

Social Science chick: Saad, are you a gamer? I am writing a paper and I need to do some research.
Saad: I am a player. Would that do? ;)

Read 'em

Ernest Hemingway
Jane Austen
Tim O'Brien
Rudyard Kipling

Quote, Unquote

Every man is wise when attacked by a mad dog; fewer when pursued by a mad woman; only the wisest survive when attacked by a mad notion.

— Robertson Davies

How I lost 12 kg

I have been on healthy diets, very successfully. And I have shown Drastic changes, getting stronger, leaner, over very short periods of time ( 90 days) and losing like 15 kgs of fat while putting on muscle.

Though it worked, I couldn't sustain it. Specially when life is filled with other moments, where your will is torn open, or simply because you travel a lot (I do), or have two families (I have :p), or when you are moving from student life to practical life ( I did, and that just took away all the free time I had!).

So now I am taking it easy. Really easy. I am not wanting to ( I am wanting to, even expecting, but I shouldn't) get impressive results. That's it. Not impressive. It will be so slow, and so natural, that even my folks won't notice. So Instead of working out 100 minutes a day, or even 60, I am just focusing on working out 15-30 minutes a day. Or if not that, then at least 30 push ups!

Regarding nutrition. Which prompted me to write this post. Well. I have done three successful diets in my life, and none of them was unhealthy. I got positive results from each of them, gaining muscle and losing fat with each (I rarely do anything without first educating myself about it, so I rarely follow fad diets, or buy into pre-packaged plans, I come up with my own stuff, mostly).

Let me talk about the 2nd time I took fitness seriously. At that time I ate two parathas in breakfast, along with two fried eggs. A cup of milk, a cup of coffee (I know, I know, stay with me, will ya?) and then for lunch, I had a corn cooked over coals, no oil or anything added to it, just some lemon and spices for taste. My lunch costed me 15 bucks! I was interning then, and was staying alone (without friends or family, since it was vacations) in LUMS over summer. So I could pull it off. I drank three of four coffees a day (two of them with sugar) because I used to feel very lethargic because of the diet.  Then by dusk I reached home, had a coffee without sugar but with a few biscuits. And went for a workout. This was a Really gruelling workout. Every session was painful. I was pushing myself in Every workout. Everday I did something more than last day. Either in running, or in weights, or in strictness of form. And then for dinner. I ate PDC ka salad. Now that's not real salad. The total is like 100-200 gm of chopped onion, cucunbers, tomatoes, carrots, etc. And it was So dull, that I had to have it with vineger. And some days, I was so tired that I didn't have the energy to eat this (the workout Was gruelling!), so I just went to bed hungry (Do you understand the breakfast now?). On weekends I partied. Steaks, burgers, milk shakes, ice creams. My every weekend was an outing with friends of eating crazy. I loved that time! I even got the bonus for performing excelling work at that internship!